Why would I want an external recorder/monitor?

Not everyone wants to shoot video, so it may seem unthinkable to spend around $1000 on an external video monitor/recorder. However, others find it opens up creative challenges every bit as satisfying as stills photography.

The more you shoot video, the more you're likely to encounter (and find yourself needing) tools that are rarely provided on stills/video cameras. We'll be shooting with a couple of the more common models over the coming weeks to see how they compare, but first we wanted to give an overview of why you'd even consider using one.

Why would I want an external monitor/recorder?

As the two-part descriptor suggests, there are two main benefits to using an external recorder: to get a bigger, more informative preview as you shoot and to capture better quality footage.

Recording

In terms of recording, the benefits come from a number of factors.

Understandably, most stills/video cameras have processors designed primarily for stills, and they also have to make significant compromises in the name of battery life and thermal management, since video isn't their primary role. Also, for the most part, they're designed to produce amounts of data that are manageable by consumers, and at bit rates compatible with (relatively) slow memory cards. This typically means heavily compressed video, usually using what's known as a GOP (group of pictures) video codec, which only records a full image at select key frames while interpolating the in-between images based on changes between frames. H.264 is a common example of a GOP codec.

"As the two-part descriptor suggests, there are two main benefits to using an external recorder: to get a bigger, more informative preview as you shoot and to capture better quality footage."

External recorders, by contrast, are dedicated video capture devices built by companies that specialize in video capture. So, while they can't improve the level of detail that your camera initially captures, they leverage the fact that your camera often captures more detail than can be recorded using the internal codec. As a result, you can capture video with fewer compression artifacts, and usually in formats that work smoothly with major editing software, such as Apple's ProRes and Avid's DNxHD and HR.

For example, most cameras output a more detailed 4:2:2 stream over HDMI, rather than the simpler 4:2:0 footage they can themselves capture and compress. Meanwhile the Fujifilm X-T2 will only output Log footage over its HDMI socket. Other cameras, notably Panasonic's GH4 and 5, will output 10-bit footage and can't capture their very highest quality footage internally.

External recorders also often support SDI connectors, a more robust type of connection typically used on pro video cameras. The latest recorders support Raw footage over SDI which means the recorder can continue to serve you if you move beyond your current camera.

Camera

Frame Rate

Codec

Bit depth / sub-sampling

Bitrate

Panasonic GH5

UHD/24p

h.264

10-bit, 4:2:2

400 Mbps

Sony a7S II

UHD/24p

h.264

8-bit 4:2:0

100 Mbps

Olympus E-M1 Mark II

DCI/24p

h.264

8-bit 4:2:0

237 Mbps

UHD/24p

ProRes 422

10-bit 4:2:2

471 Mbps

UHD/24p

ProRes 422 HQ

10-bit 4:2:2

707 Mbps

Similarly, external recorders often have better audio capture capabilities than those baked into the mass-market capture formats used in many cameras. As with the video footage, this is primarily a case of having more space dedicated on the screen, lower levels of compression and a wider range of settings and connectors.

Monitoring

The monitor side of things, there are a lot more benefits than just having a bigger screen to see things with, though this in itself is valuable. The ability to see your scene on a larger screen makes it easier to spot small, distracting objects and check precisely where your focus is set. It can also help you better visualize the way your final footage will look, helping you make creative decisions such as choosing how much depth-of-field you want.

It's also common for monitors to offer overlays and composition aids. For example, framing guides that show crops for different aspect ratios can be helpful if you intend to publish your work in something other than the camera's native aspect ratio.

Also, freed from having to share battery power with so many other functions, external monitors can often be run brighter than the rear screen on your camera, making it easier to shoot outdoors.

Boxes full of tools

But just as significantly, external devices often include useful monitoring tools that go beyond those offered in most cameras, both in terms of the range of tools available, and the precision with which they can be configured.

It's becoming increasingly common for cameras to offer focus peaking, to check where the point of perfect focus is, but zebras, which highlights an area of a certain brightness, are still not universal. External recorders offer these features, often with greater control over their settings. The ability to choose to highlight a typical skintone brightness or everything exposed over 90 or 95% brightness, makes achieving consistent exposure much easier.

Focus peaking is becoming increasingly common on cameras, but external monitors can offer more subtle control over color and threshold, to make it easier to fine-focus.

The other feature common on external recorders that we've only seen on a couple of cameras is the ability to apply color and gamma curve correcting look up tables (LUTs) to Log video in real time. This means that you can shoot gradable, but washed-out-looking, Log footage but with a preview that approximates the finished result, so you end up looking at something much more visually meaningful.

'Scopes

There are a series of exposure and color analysis tools widely used in video production, collectively known as 'scopes.' These are very rare on contemporary stills/video cameras, but are hugely useful for assessing your setup.

A waveform display is a tool to help visualize luminance/exposure. It's common on pro video equipment as well as in video editing software. Rather than a histogram, which just tells you how many pixels hold each brightness value, a waveform tell you where those pixels occur in the image. The waveform diagram shows the brightness values for every column of pixels in the image: dark at the bottom, bright at the top.

Videographers like to use waveforms because it's easy to visualize both exposure and contrast across the frame. This is particularly helpful for judging exposure at a particular location, such as a subject's face. It's also pretty common to have a choice of Luminance or separate R,G,B waveforms (known as an 'RGB Parade'), for judging color balance and per-channel exposure.

The luma waveforms shown here are representing the ColorChecker on our test scene. There's a thin, bright peak on the far left, representing the sliver of white that just crept into shot, then there are six columns representing the six columns of color patches on the ColorChecker. Look closely and you'll see that the pattern of the left-hand three columns getting progressively shorter continues into the right-hand columns: these are the progressively darker greyscale patches along the bottom of the ColorChecker.

The other common video tool is the Vectorscope, which can be used to evaluate color information in the image, such as hue and saturation. Getting accurate color straight out of camera (as well as matching it between shots) is particularly important when shooting video since Raw video capture hasn't yet arrived in hybrid cameras. It's a bit like shooting JPEGs – you only have so much latitude to adjust things in post.

False Color paints regions of the image to reflect their brightness. There's a fairly standard scale, red for clipped whites, purple for crushed blacks, green for middle grey and pink for skintones.

Finally, one feature we've not seen on any camera yet is False Color, which is a little bit like having multiple zebras active at the same time. Most brands use a similar scheme in which tones around middle grey are painted green, one stop above this (the approximate brightness of Caucasian skin tones) is painted pink, near clipping is yellow, clipped is red, near black is blue and crushed black is purple. The result is a riot of color but with a bit of experience, it gives you a very easy way to interpret your exposure.

Workflow benefits

The net effect of these features quickly add up to provide benefits throughout the video workflow. If you can capture footage using a codec favored by your choice of editing software, you can usually speed up the process of importing by avoiding the need to transcode.

Similarly, the use of the fastest memory cards or still-faster SSDs maximizes transfer rates when it comes to transferring large video files to your editing computer. Again, with a project that takes more than a handful of clips, this is a huge time-saver.

Some external devices let you review and tag your clips before you get back to your computer, again speeding up the initial step of organizing your footage.

It's not all good

As you'd expect, there are disadvantages to using external recorders, too.

Although each of the tools offered make it easier to set your shot up perfectly, this more precise way of working can also risk slowing you down. Also, the added weight and bulk of carrying a second device around with you makes it much harder to run-and-gun with an external monitor.

On top of this, it's much less likely that you'll go unnoticed. Even a relatively small monitor/recorder makes your setup look more professional and consequently more obtrusive. This is not the look for Guerrilla film making.

One downside of off-camera recorders is that it's a bit harder to blend into the scenery and remain unnoticed.

Also, although external devices don't need to share their battery power with so many other functions, it still takes a lot of power to run a screen and capture and compress video. Even the models with fans tend to run hot and hit their batteries hard, meaning you've got more recharging to plan and worry about.

But, given the amount of planning that goes into anything beyond the simple grabbing of clips, this additional consideration isn't that onerous. For a bit more planning and setup time, an external recorder can help you get the very best out of your camera.

$1000 isn't a trivial amount of money but, for a great many photographers, it's an amount they'd justify spending on a lens. Just like a lens, an external recorder can help expand the range of things you can do with your current camera. It's also brand agnostic, so unlike a lens, it's very likely to work regardless of what camera you buy next, and will help boost the quality of everything you shoot, not just the things you can use a new lens for. And that's got to be worth it, hasn't it?

Comments

An external recording medium comes to my mind only if the camera is going to be of the sacrificial persuasion and there would be a risk that the same might be true of the embedded storage card. In such situations storage facilities away from the danger zone might be indicated. The same would apply if the danger comes to a surveillance camera from the opbjects being surveyed - if a burglar would swipe the card from the camera it might be the better option not to have one there but somewhere in the cloud - you have heard of the swiped smartphone that is sending selfies of the thief to its dropbox from all over the world?

Okay, there is this other use case - unlimited storage space. If your camera's storage can not be extended beyond a certain value, but your server or cloud space can ...

A monitor option will help when I want everyone in the studio to be able to see what I see while taking the shot - and/or each shot as the shutter fell. This could be useful or distracting for any model(s) involved, but downright useful for the rest of the staff - and quite entertaining for any guests or sponsors present.

That is, a very big monitor on the wall.

The other case will be in my next post - not enough space in here to swing even a tiny cat ...

I've acquired a SmallHD DP4 for my video newbie endeavors, and although it has served me well, I feel the need to upgrade it. The Atomos Shogun Inferno seems to fit the bill nicely. It should also fit nicely in my rig. Which will eventually lead to further upgrades down the line: a better video camera than my current Nikon D7100, beefier fluid head and tripod, wireless mics, external battery pack... And we thought still photography was expensive.

Thanks to the iPhone and its Android counterparts you don't need wireless microphones anymore. There are lavs that are specifically designed to work with phones, that plus a little moleskin or toupee tape to stick them to the talent under their clothes are all you need for great dialog recording. Plus wireless can be a big hassle when you get radio interference. And as I have found out, it seems to be impossible to match the beautiful video you can get from Nikon cameras, so don't ditch that 7100 just yet.

I see that I have now commented on this story three different times—what is missing from my life? I will go to radio silence mode now.

rfsIII, I'm definitely keeping the D7100 for stills, but I'm eyeing the Panasonic GH5 with a Metabones Ultra to use my Nikkors. All manual focus, so I'm not worried about any AF issues/non-issues the GH5 has. The Shogun Inferno would initially be used for monitoring only, but should I ever need to record DCI 4K in 10-bit 4:2:2, I should be set.

You bring a good point about iphones/androids for recording the talent remotely. I don't do any live streaming, and dialog can be synced in post.

This leads to another question. Do camera manufacturers artificially inflate their bitrates to make their cameras seem better than they really are? Heaven knows they lie about everything else. And also, do we really need 400mbps? An Alexa does 330mbps internally and I've never heard anyone complain about that.

I think it's a bit of both “lie” + Incompetence - when it comes to real time video encoding, not every company have the expertise and technology to efficiently encode as much as detail from the sensor, thus they rely on high bitrate to looks good on spec and in final video

Hardware encoders pretty much ALWAYS underperform the best software encoders such as x264 at a given bitrate. Even if a company DOES know how to increase their quality at a given bitrate, there may be other limitations (such as thermal envelope) that prevent it.

As amateur doing this stuff for fun, I completed my first run&gun rig few moments ago. It is cheap and I suppose if I got some kind of cold shoe rig arm I can fit there a 7 inch screen to the left end and mic to right end. However this is only a start and more advanced things are out of question on this particular rig arm. I figured out that I would like to have some wireless audio monitoring option and having used bluetooth transmitter in the past I bought a new one which claims to be almost lag free and so it is. Battery on that tiny thing last 10 hours and 12 on my bluetooth headphones for monitoring. I spent several hours reading about mics options and watching reviews on youtube and I got convinced by overall value for money by Takstar SGC-698 and I am not disapointed I have to say. Stereo separation is good, dead cat works welll and +20db gain with minimum audio gain on A7 sounds great. That is £30 mic. https://www.dpreview.com/galleries/3897058264/albums/sony-a7-mk1-run-gun-rig

I have a Shogun Inferno with GH5 that I use for commercial work. Nice to have uncompressed 10 bit 60p but honestly, in my last project I could not tell the difference and it was a heavily graded project.

I shot in 10 bit, 24p internal, 8 bit, 60p internal and 10 bit, 60p external. All v-log and like I mentioned above heavily graded in post. While editing I could not tell which shots were shot with what bit rate. Fairly certain that when the summer GH5 firmware drops that gap between external recorder and internal quality will become smaller.

For my FZ2500 I do see a huge differnece though so I think using an external recorder is very camera dependant. Was my Inferno worth the $2000+ I spent on it? I'm not sure.

NB that you don't have to spend $1000 for monitor/recorder combos. There are viable monitor-only options for under $200. Not as slick, of course, but not bad. Look on the ’tubes for reviews.

That said, if you want to get into video, brace yourself and your wallet. First of all video is a collaborative medium and you'll be buying a lot of lunches for your crew. Second, the cost of most decent video equipment is at least 1.5x the cost of still gear. For instance, the cheapest tripods that will give you decent results start at around $1500. You can buy something used, but it's still around $1,000. Microphones start at $300 and only go upward. Then there are cages and adapters to make your DSLR into a video camera, add a couple of decent lights, and suddenly you've spent more than the cost of your camera body. It's best if you can find someone to partner/share equipment with.

Which is, of course, not to say that you can't do it on a budget; there are some great cheap microphones and you can DIY very serviceable sliders, dollys, and jib arms. But those take time and some money to make, so you have to ask whether there are better ways to use your time—like writing, shooting, and editing. It's a little crazy making. That's why it all comes back to the point that the most important skill of filmmaking is the ability to establish friendships with other people who love films like you do and want to share equipment, ideas, and time.

To be fair, ever since the 30-minute video recording limit vanished on Sony A7 series cameras (thanks, OpenMemories!), I haven't considered using an external recorder. I *have* purchased the INOGENI 4K dongle for external recording on a computer, and that hasn't really been that successful: a computer, even a powerful one, isn't powerful enough to encode a 4K stream at high quality. Lower settings are available, but I guess if you want ProRes and the like, a dedicated recorder is the only way to go. Personally I'm fine with the encoding format that the A7 cameras use internally. Only problem is the dastardly overheating problem, but it only rears its ugly head under direct sunlight at 30+C temperatures, and I record events which are typically indoors. Still, it's a problem for which a solution is yet to be found, though I did hope that Sony would fix it -- they didn't, really.

I've used a friend's really cheap monitor—like $100—and it wasn't half bad. As with most things in photography, it's all about how well you can use the tools, not the quality of the tools themselves. A great intro to waveforms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-8o_TvyNjc(Or you can go old-school and set exposure with an incident meter which is often easier and more accurate, takes the guess work out, can be quite a bit cheaper. )

The trouble with DPreview starting to cover video accessories is that it is endlessly complicated unlike still cameras with their built in and simple way of doing photography. Of course, dongles can be added to still cameras, but basically they function as stand alone even with their limited video capabilities.

Obviously, if you want to compete with EOSHD, that is your prerogative but DPreview is foremost a still camera website that now includes a bit of information on video capabilities. If you want to add all sorts of things to a still camera to make it compete with true video cameras, the only limiting factor you as reviewers will face is your knowledge of all the different ways you can do the same thing with video.

We're not trying to compete with any particular site when we do articles about video. We cover these things because we consistently hear from readers who tell us they want more content related to video – not surprising given the video capabilities on current cameras are better than ever, and people want to use those features.

This particular article is meant as an introduction to off camera recorders, mostly for people who have never seen one, held one, or used one before, and don't really know where to start. For experienced videographers it's simplistic, but that wasn't the target audience for this article.

If you are going to spend a total of $5-10k on your video device, it is absurd to put it together in marginally-compatible devices. Get a semi-pro or pro video camera. It will have XLR inputs, good quality preamps, a decent swivel LCD display, all the IO ports needed, a single large battery...and a much more compact and ergonomic form factor!

In the abstract you are right. But what if I already own a bunch of Canon lenses and want to stay in the Canon ecosystem. Do I really want to buy a C100, C200, or C300 in addition to my 5D? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy the accessories I need to make my stills camera into a viable video machine? I can't quite figure out where the cost-benefit curve crosses over.

In the same boat as @mrbrightside, if you're doing stills and video you can easily add a few accessories to get what you would in a C100, they're just not as integrated. I dumped traditional video cameras when the 5d2 came out and haven't looked back. Now that paying clients see DSLR video as the norm, you don't have to buy larger cameras to get great results and things like external recorders make life easy.

I also have no clue what raw lite is...Raw by definition is the uncompressed, unprocessed data from the image sensor. How can it be made "lite" without some kind of processing, which will, of course mean that it's not raw anymore.

exactly, "raw-lite" which is still a humongous data rate and still allows for gamma, white balance and picture profile. You still need to initially conform with Canon's Raw-lite software or Davinci Resolve. Some folks transcode to ProRes 4:4:4 which still allows quite granular control over colors and is easier to live with in your nle and hard drive.

Red Camera has a similar raw codec which allows for various compression -- yes less compression will give you more color possibilities but after a certain point you're dealing with ridiculous file sizes for perhaps unnoticeable detail. Where do you set the compromise point? That's the million dollar question or the two thousand dollar question depending on your budget!

By the way, the C200 almost makes me want to switch to Canon cameras -- if only it had a more universal lens mount....

One issue that prevents more people from using good external monitors is price. Sure, we could buy some cheap 12" monitors, but the colors and resolution are not up to par for pro work. At best those are good for framing, not much else, not even reliable focusing since the resolution isn't significantly better than what's on the back of a camera.

The really good monitors are really pricey, which kinda makes sense since they're targeted toward working professionals, but it's also prohibitively high for non-paying, experimental work. Some of the really small pro monitors are within affordable price ranges, but... they're so small!

A lot of 7" monitor/recorders are in the $1000 price range. That's not inexpensive, but in the context of camera gear it's not that expensive either. At that size they're usually 1080 resolution, which is a huge improvement over the built-in LCDs on most cameras, and much easier for focusing and composition. Color on some of them, particularly the Atomos models I've used, is very good.

There are also good monitors (sans recorder) as well, but those were outside the scope of this article.

I guess everyone's definition of "affordable" differs. When I say affordable, I don't mean cheap, I mean it's a price I can stomach for its function. But in any case, the fact remains they are small and not overly useful. And I disagree that their resolutions are a "huge" improvement. If anyone puts it on a cheap DSLR, sure, it's an improvement, but we're not talking about those cameras, agreed? Even at 1080p, at 7" it's not a significant help and one might be better off getting a cheaper, no-brand version at 720p for less price.

In the end, I think our points mostly agree: price is a major factor in why people don't use external monitors more.

Atomos Ninja 2 is my precious treasure... even though I loath using stills cameras as camcorders and for almost all things video use my trusty old Sony PMW-EX1R, unless I need an action camera or *really* need a picture from larger sensor. Recorder is good for long shots like conferences when customer needs footage immediately and in a single file. 36 Mbps DNxHD is more than enough, I don't even bother with higher bitrates.

As a monitor, though, I prefer Aputure VS-3, and it is indispensable when shooting aerobatics... I just attach it to tripod with a clamp and roll on, not even looking skywards.

Neither, though, are as good in color and brightness rendition as EX1R's own display, but anyway I shoot with rather flat picture profile that is gradeable, although not bad on its own.

External recorders are excellent! This is if you can afford it after your camera and lenses, however, consider renting one for important gigs. Additional benefits include extended recording time (beyond 29:59 minutes), helps with overheating on some pesky cameras (i.e a6300) and improved audio (some recorders have xlr which is great). I like the bigger screen which makes focusing and composing much easier.

Downsides: heavy, awkward weight if you factor in the recorder's batteries, Fiddly connectors if using hdmi and expensive accessories such as recording drives.

Another benefit is you can quickly transfer your recording directly into your NLE and immediately begin to edit (file is already in your editing codec -- no transcoding). Files can quickly get large, though -- plan your backup workflow.

Bigger screen so better to judge focus with focus peaking than a smaller screen of the camera itself (especially the GH5 only has focus peaking in manual focus only, not good since the auto focus doesn't work well enough to not need peaking to show the camera has locked on focus),

Many recorders now have HDR screens with high brightness, great for shooting log or RAW (if your camera supports either).

Better codecs of ProRes and DNxHD/DNxHR - No chance of macroblocking you get with AVC H.264 and H.265 codecs, and higher bitrates on external recorders.

You can use larger capacity SSDs than you can with SD cards so no need to keep a lot of SD cards with you, just one or more SSDs and enough batteries and you can shoot all day if you need to, Downside is the larger file sizes you have to work with.

Some cameras have not only better color subsmpling and more color bits, but also better dynamic range when shooting externally.

I too was thinking the same. Surely as tablets become more powerful these external recorder systems become less relevant. It strikes me the makers of these devices could widen their customer base by making a range of software and connectivity systems for the tablet market. It could be a very profitable line.

@Dale - Thanks for this article! Given some of the comments here and my own curiosity, if you guys can squeeze in time for it, I would really love a follow-up article: "$1000 external monitor/recorder vs. el cheapo options -- what do you really need for your type of video-making + level of professionalism?".

@definedphotography That is where the money could be made. I am thinking of a software/hardware solution. In the most basic form, software only which would be great for those occasional videographers. Make this expandable with various hardware solutions. From a simple mount, to a more complex one with memory slots and onboard batteries or power inputs as well as HDMI ports. While that sounds complicated, the hardware should be quite simple. Some of the more powerful tablets are up to the task processor wise already.

Of course, or converted in the dock to USB 3 data stream depending on the speed. I would also hazard a guess that it is possible via lightning ports, just disabled by apple. This is just an idea of what could happen in the future as tablets increase in power. They will need more whistles to differentiate them from their competitors, and the ability to to process video streamed from cameras could be a biggy. So the makers of these recorders might need to innovate in this area.

Just what the doctor ordered. I am going to shoot an inline skating event in my hometown next week, if the weather permits, and was checking cheap monitors on amazon. There is an interesting one for £50 just now - 7 inch 720p and I was thinking that I would get it mostly to be able to manual focus more precisely with adapted FD and similar lenses. But I am going to be on the skates as well and suddenly this is all getting bigger and heavier so I am compromising now and will try to go EVF and monopod on teleshots on my A7. On other shots I will go by distance scale and have greater margins for error by increased depth of field using smaller aperture. Just recently I did one short skating video one morning, all by my self using only manfrotto pixi mini tripod, Sony A7, Tokina 17mm MD and Canon 50mm 1.4 FD. I am definitely going to order external mic, the wind noise ruined the sound a bit. Tascam TM-2 X is on the top of my list so far. https://youtu.be/3cNM9U2R6SY

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